In many industrial applications, it is necessary to dispense non-solid materials such as adhesives, sealants, and greases. These materials are often highly viscous making their handling especially difficult. In addition, it is often necessary to dispense the non-solid materials in controlled portions. For example, when dispensing an adhesive or sealant, it is necessary that the proper amount of the adhesive or sealant be dispensed for the application at hand. Insufficient or excess adhesive or sealant adversely affects the performance of the material and the use of excess material becomes costly in the long run. If the material being dispensed is one part of a multi-part mixture, the amount of material dispensed is often critical since the performance of the mixture may depend on the ratio of its components. Therefore, there is a need for an apparatus capable of metering and dispensing non-solid material in controlled portions.
In certain applications, the amount of non-solid material required may vary over time or may change if the process is adjusted or fine tuned. Therefore, it is often necessary to adjust the amount of non-solid material being dispensed. Ideally, the metering and dispensing apparatus will allow for easy adjustment of the amount of material to be dispensed.